Mar Grande beach, Coastal beach in Vera Cruz, Brazil

Mar Grande Beach lies on the island of Itaparica, in the Bay of All Saints, and forms the district of Mar Grande in the municipality of Vera Cruz. It is the island's main crossing point, where ferries and boats from Salvador land, and passenger vans continue from there across Itaparica.

Itaparica was a fishing community until the 19th century, when steam navigation on the Baía de Todos os Santos, from 1878, brought new construction and turned the area into a summer resort, peaking in the 1950s. From the 1970s, ferry boats and vessels crossing from Salvador to Mar Grande gave a new impulse to development, with passenger vans carrying travellers onward across the island.

The beach appears throughout the chronicles of writer Myriam Fraga, who spent her childhood summers there and later portrayed it; her posthumous book "Ventos de Verão" dialogues with canvases by Mendonça Filho. Those paintings record the fishermen of Mar Grande, its residents, cultural life and typical landscapes.

Mar Grande is the island's main arrival point: ferries and boats from Salvador dock here, and from the terminal passenger vans continue across Itaparica. The beach sits in the Bay of Todos os Santos, so check boat times before planning a return crossing.

The beach appears in most of the chronicles of writer Myriam Fraga, who spent her summers there from childhood; her posthumous book "Ventos de Verão" pairs the beach with canvases by Mendonça Filho, who painted its fishermen and residents.